Personal Learning Network (PLN)

Reflect on the ways that you learn and deepen your connections to sources of learning.

Raindrop.io tag: onidpln

Learning Objectives

  1. Watch the two introductory videos and reflect on the nuances between the various terms PLN, PLE, and PLC.
  2. Read the two assigned readings and post a tweet referencing your takeaways.
  3. Create a visual representation of your Personal Learning Environment and share it with the class in Slack, Twitter, or as a blog post.
  4. Write and publish a blog post reflecting on the nature of your own learning and your PLE, including the image of your PLE and referencing readings.
  5. Establish a Twitter account and complete your public profile.
  6. Establish a Raindrop.io account and join the ED431 class (invite will be sent).
  7. Share two or more resources on a topic of your choice to the ED431 collection in Raindrop.io with the tag #onidpln
  8. Send five or more tweets with the tag #onidpln
  9. Engage with peers in the cohort and professionals outside of the course by replying to or quoting tweets, commenting on blog posts, or writing blog posts of your own.

Introduction

In this expansive, semester-long assignment, you will begin to develop and document your Personal Learning Network. A PLN is an important element in the ONID program as well as for your own self reflection and growth as an educator. A Personal Learning Network is an idiosyncratic and evolving framework that allows you to connect to and collect information, reflect on and share that information with others.

Moss covered tree roots.

Readings

Cormier, D. (2011, Nov 5) Rhizomatic Learning — Why we teach? [Blog Post]. Retrieved from  https://davecormier.com/edblog/2011/11/05/rhizomatic-learning-why-learn/

LaSota, D. (n.d.) Personal Learning Environments: An organizational and practice based concept for evaluating and improving the way individuals learn. Retrieved from https://iteachu.uaf.edu/personal-learning-environments/

  • The video on this page is a little long but it is a thorough overview of the PLE and should be useful for those who are new to these terms.

Optional Reading:

Laakkonen, I. (2015). Doing what we teach: promoting digital literacies for professional development through personal learning environments and participation. In J. Jalkanen, E. Jokinen, & P. Taalas (Eds.), Voices of pedagogical development — Expanding, enhancing and exploring higher education language learning (pp. 171-195). Dublin: Research-publishing.net.

Moss, J. (2012, June 5) Personal learning environment: what does yours look like? Retrieved from: https://iteachu.uaf.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/623/2012/06/TT-PLE.pdf

Instructions

We’re going to try and nail down the concept of a PLN in three ways:

  1. We are going to establish and make use of accounts on Twitter, a public microblogging service, and Raindrop.io, a social bookmarking service. These will be destinations for us to gather and share information.
  2. We are going to create visual representations of our PLNs. You will do this once at the very beginning of the semester, and reflect upon the continued relevance or accuracy of that representation again at the end of the semester. You will find that the nature of your PLN will change over time, as well as your perspectives on what counts as part of it.  In the process of using these tools in this class, you will be asked to think about your larger PLN and the elements that comprise it. The process of many of the assignments in the class will result in the discover of tools (some new to all of us, some new to you) that may enhance your PLN.
  3. We are going to reflect on our own PLNs and the concept in general by posting at least five tweets, at least one blog post, and at least two outside readings to Raindrop.io

This assignment is comprised of two parts: Establish, and Create & Finalize. Each represent 10% of your grade. The Establish portion is due the fourth week of the course. The Create & Finalize portion is ongoing over the semester and is cumulative, being wrapped up at the very end with a summarizing blog post and a revisitation of your PLN visualization.

Video: Defining Terms (5:15)

Use the onscreen controls to toggle between the two video streams. Accurate captions are forthcoming.

Video: Mainstream definition of a PLN (1:25)

PLE Visualization

Create a visual or textual representation of your PLE, using the four-term framework Connect, Collect, Reflect, Share. Think about tools that you use, but also the ways generally that you acquire and act on information. Include the software, tools, or services that are of most utility to you, but also the personal connections and activities that you engage in that benefit your learning (coffee is just one example). Be creative as this is a visual exercise. Abstraction and metaphor is welcome. I’ve seen excellent PLE visualizations that are fashioned as gardens, or windows, or river systems. Do you.

This image will be included in your blog post in which you reflect on the value and utility of your PLN and your vision of its potential for your future professional development.

Venn diagram with three circles - collect, reflect, share, connected together in the center with connect.

Video: Example of Twitter for PLN

Here is an extra example of using Twitter for PLN as it relates to the Connect/Collect/Reflect/Share framework:

Establish Accounts

Twitter

Establish a Twitter account that you will use as the primary public communication tool for your PLN. As soon as possible, list your account in the cohort google sheet and follow all of the other ONID cohort students listed there. Each week, identify and follow new accounts: people, educators, leaders, politicians, companies, institutions, community organizations, governments. This is not actually as easy as it sounds. It takes some time to build a critical mass of Twitter contacts, and especially to build a group that you find useful to view aggregated into a feed. The act of following another person is essentially an act of curating your own feed.

Manage Your Presence

Being on Twitter necessitates an additional step. That is the provision and creation of your own online presence.

Choose a good photo of yourself. There a number of ways you can take this. Some don’t like to have a very prominent profile picture. As an educator and someone who is representing their real self as a professional in a public forum, a professional or personally flattering headshot is recommended.

Choose a representative background photo. The dimensions of this are very wide, so landscapes or designs work well. Mining an open source free photography site such as Unsplash.com can be a good way to find a snappy photo that fits. Online design tools such as Canva and Crello feature templates that will generate an appropriately sized image for this background. Adobe Spark even includes a specific Twitter header image template and instructions.

Relevant tutorials:

  • Twitter Tutorial from Hoonuit.
    (Note that you must be  logged into Hoonuit  through your UA Google account in order to access the tutorials.)

Participation and Engagement: Directions for Sharing and Following

The following steps are considered in the grade for the PLN assignment, both the initial establishment and the cumulative activity building toward the final summary.

  • Add text links to your Raindrop.io and Twitter accounts on your portfolio landing page. These can be in a widget or other embedded code generated by that tool.
  • Follow each of your cohort’s Twitter accounts as well as accounts suggested above. You can locate these accounts on the  Cohort page.
  • You should post a  minimum of four tweets per week. Retweets are great, but don’t count! Here’s what counts as a substantial, gradable tweet!
    • Highlighting a resource (link to a website, a relevant quote, book. etc.)
    • A quoted retweet from one of your Twitter follows or followers, with your quote itself sufficient enough to stand on its own.
    • A link to your blog post or assignment with a few sentences of context.
    • A thoughtful reply to a tweet. (these can be powerful and gain you followers as well as help you find new users to follow by seeing who liked or retweeted your reply.)
    • An original tweet with your profound musings on a relevant topic to this course (these are many)*.

*a tweetstorm or threaded tweet reply can only count for two of your graded tweets for the week.

Tagging Resources

It’s important and useful to all when you tag your assignments and other ONID resources consistently so that others (including your instructor) can find them easily. Use the following conventions when you tag resources:
Twitter: Due to the 280 character limit, a single hashtag referencing the assignment (such as #onidtools or #onidpln) is sufficient.
Raindrop.io: Multiple, accurate tags will greatly assist your future self and others in organizing and sorting the resources that you add to our group. Useful tags include the course title, #onid431 or #ed431, the relevant assignment name (#onidpln) and any other tags that describe the resource (#web2.0, #ai, #assessment, #collaboration, #twitter) and on and on.

Scoring Guide: Establish

  Emerging Developing Meeting Expectations
 Exceeding Expectations
Writing Standards
Assignment is not completed Spelling, style, or usage errors are present; APA styles for  references  and  citations  are not followed No spelling or usage errors are present; APA styles for  references  and  citations  are mostly followed. No spelling or usage errors are present;  APA styles for  references  and  citations  are consistently followed.
Links Links are not included, resources not added.   Links to some shared resources are present but many others are missing; some links do not work properly. Links to all shared resources are present in the specified locations in your portfolio; all links work properly. Links to all shared resources are present in the specified locations in your portfolio; all links work properly.
PLN Participation No participation Weak evidence of PLN participation; Twitter  subscriptions are incomplete; fewer than two tweets per week; hash tags are not used properly or are used inconsistently; shared resources are minimal, narrow, and without much consistency Adequate evidence of participation through Twitter subscriptions with an average of several tweets per week; hash tags are used properly; minimum number of resources is contributed; responses to online discussions, but little new or original commentary is contributed Strong evidence of active participation through Twitter follows, proper use of hash tags for shared resources, and breadth/depth of shared resources on all accounts; student takes an active role in posting new or original comments or resources; more than four tweets on average per week.
Representation/Visualization Visualization not present PLN representation missing or is unclear and incomplete PLN representation is adequate but could be improved or made more clear PLN representation is clear and complete and shows originality, creativity, and thoughtfulness in its design
Reflection No evidence of reflection Reflection is narrowly focused and does not show evidence of active participation; examples from readings are absent or are largely irrelevant to the reflection; reflection shows a superficial treatment of the implications of a PLN as a learning tool Reflection adequately explains the function of your PLN; personal experiences are basically addressed; implications of the PLN as a learning tool need additional thought and exploration. Reflection is thoughtful, thorough, and accurately explains your experiences;  evidence of thoughtful reflection on how the PLN functions as a learning tool (positive or negative);  relevant examples from readings are included.

 

Scoring Guide: Build & Document

  Emerging
Developing Meeting Expectations
Exceeding Expectations
Writing Standards
Assignment is not completed Spelling, style, or usage errors are present; APA styles for  references  and  citations  are not followed No spelling or usage errors are present; APA styles for  references  and  citations  are mostly followed. No spelling or usage errors are present;  APA styles for  references  and  citations  are consistently followed.
PLN Participation No evidence of participation Weak evidence of PLN participation; Twitter  subscriptions are incomplete; fewer than two tweets on average per week; hash tags are not used properly or are used inconsistently; Less than five total comments on cohorts blogs, shared resources are minimal, narrow, and without much consistency. Adequate evidence of participation through Twitter subscriptions; two tweets per week; hash tags are used properly; minimum number of resources is contributed; responses to online discussions are adequate in number (more than one per course week), but little new or original commentary is contributed Strong evidence of active participation through Twitter follows, proper use of hash tags for shared resources, and breadth/depth of shared resources on all accounts including Twitter, Slack, WordPress and other platforms of choice; student takes an active role in posting new or original comments or resources; more than four tweets on average per week and more than three blog comments per course week.
Reflection Reflection not posted Reflection post is narrowly focused and does not show evidence of critical thought or application of course concepts. Reflection post is addresses the concept of the PLN and provides adequate insight into the creation and evolution of the PLN over the course of the semester. Reflection post is thoughtful, thorough, and accurately explains your experiences. Post includes both personal insights as well as references to course readings and/or outside readings and research. Reflection addresses challenges and successes over the course of the semester.